The Truth About Monsters

Chapter 15: Peacemaker

Rosie and Jisoo hadn't really spoken for nearly a week after the hospital affair.

It was Jisoo's fault.

Like some recluse, she'd heard Rosie's pleadings for peace and to give everyone a second chance, and then withdrew into her work.

She'd not allowed Rosie to come to work, even going so far as to post someone out by the office building main entrance, barring Rosie from getting inside.

Rosie hadn't actually seen her since she'd patched up the cut on her cheek.

Since she'd held her shaking hands after her bout with Jungkook.

Since she'd kissed her full lips and wiped away her tears.

Every part of her missed Kim Jisoo.

Every fiber of her being, every inch of her heart and soul.

Every minute of every day.

And yet, Jisoo pulled back.

Rosie couldn't help but feel afraid. She didn't fully understand her feelings for Jisoo. She knew that they were fiery, passionate, and intensely powerful. She didn't need to understand them, not yet. She needed to share them with Jisoo, to open up her heart with reckless abandon and to throw caution to the wind.

She couldn't do that if Jisoo withdrew.

What if Jisoo didn't share her feelings?

What if Jisoo no longer cared about Rosie?

Rosie remained out of contact with her, wincing every time her calls were ignored, and her texts were lost in the unanswered void.

Rosie buried herself into Mino, then. She studied, read up on his injury, on his condition.

Hell, she volunteered to be the doctor to break it to him when he came to.

It was, in fact, a brutal moment. One of the hardest in her life.

It was almost more painful than the bullet she took.

She remembered it so vividly that the moment manifested itself in all of her nightmares. Which she'd had no shortage of.

Most of them ended with Jisoo dying somehow, and Rosie would wake up gasping for air.

It was becoming harder and harder to simply exist.

Rosie was there when Mino came to for the first time after both incidents, his leg patched up as best as the hospital could manage.

Rosie felt awful, knowing that Somi should have been there, and yet she wasn't.

Rosie hadn't spoken to Somi since the accident, but she knew, from the bottom of her heart, that Somi never would have condoned this kind of treatment, certainly not to Mino. To be fair, though, Rosie never thought Jungkook was capable of such a monstrous act, either.

But, then again, Rosie's malleable world seemed to redefine its own boundaries every day.

The soft humming of the machines gave way to Mino's shallow breathing, which increased as his dark eyes fluttered open, immediately scanning the room for threats. He tensed up, trying to sit up to gain a better vantage point in his unfamiliar surroundings.

His eyes found Rosie and he seemed to deflate back to a resting position.

Rosie's soul ached for him.

Jisoo was right behind Rosie, a supportive hand on her lower back.

Jennie was escorted out of the hospital by Darius, having lost her temper before even being able to see Mino.